Arbitrariness of Chinese jailing

I am writing in relation to an article (Irish Examiner, Aug 7) which related to a Chinese woman who has been living and working in Dublin, Ireland for the last eight years, but whose visa expired last January.

She now awaits deportation whilst she is imprisoned in Mountjoy prison.

I believe that such a story provides plenty of scope for discussion in relation to the reform of our justice system. I think that such a conviction is arbitrary and hints at the undercurrent of racism and xenophobia that is rampant in this country. She has been jailed even though she was liaising with the Garda National Immigration Bureau in the meantime for an extension of her visa. But because she recently left the State to go to Belfast on a day trip, a legal technicality rendered her as a new entrant upon her return to Dublin, for which she now faces imprisonment and deportation.

To highlight the arbitrariness surrounding her conviction compare this information with statistics regarding rape convictions, where we have one of the lowest conviction rates in the EU. Only about 30% of sexual violence cases end up being brought before the courts and only about 2-5% of all rapes and other sexual crimes lead to a conviction in Ireland.

Laura Woods

Ballincollig

Co Cork